Irish Breakdown

5 Reasons Notre Dame Will Dominate Stanford on Saturday

Notre Dame returns from an off week and welcomes a stumbling Stanford squad to South Bend

Nick Shepkowski

Notre Dame cornerback Christian Gray (29) celebrates winning a NCAA college football game 31-24 against Louisville at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in South Bend.
Notre Dame cornerback Christian Gray (29) celebrates winning a NCAA college football game 31-24 against Louisville at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in South Bend. / MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Notre Dame football returns to action Saturday after an off week, welcoming Stanford to South Bend this week.

Two years ago Stanford stunned Notre Dame in Marcus Freeman's first year as head coach, beating the Irish as a 16-point underdog. That and the loss to Northern Illinois earlier this year remain in the minds of the Notre Dame faithful, but I'm here to tell you why not to worry.

Notre Dame is going to blow Stanford out on Saturday.

Don't believe me?

Here are five reasons why.

5. Stanford's Travel Catches Up

Just over a month into the season Stanford has already traveled cross country twice as it has played at Syracuse and Clemson. That's good for roughly 10,000 miles round trip already with both games being played in the Eastern time zone. Saturday comes after a Thursday afternoon of travel that is another trip over 2,000 miles of travel for the Cardinal for a game that will kickoff at 11:30 a.m. PT.

4. Notre Dame Will Threaten a Shutout

You can have worries about Notre Dame's offense and they're justified. However, the defense remains elite and should be in position to pad its stats Saturday. Stanford's 0.252 points per play this season rank 113th out of 134 FBS teams. This is a bottom-fifth offense traveling to South Bend to take on an elite Notre Dame defense.

3. Stanford's Defensive Struggles

We're at the point where the season is still somewhat young in terms of tracking stat totals. Stanford's seven points allowed to Cal Poly factor into the Cardinal ranking outside the top 100 in points per game allowed (32.3), yards per pass allowed (8.6), pass yards per game allowed (287),

2. Notre Dame Off a Bye Week

Marcus Freeman has only been Notre Dame's head coach since 2022 but is 3-0 coming off a bye week. That includes two home games against mediocre at best ACC teams a year ago when the Irish dismantled Pittsburgh 58-7 and Wake Forest 45-7. Stanford is mediocre at best like those two and will be in for a long afternoon in South Bend.

1. Notre Dame is a Good Football Team

There is a certain amount of Notre Dame fans that seem like they don't want to admit it out of fear or something, but this is a quality football team. No, quality is underselling it. This is a very good football team.

It had a brain freeze against Northern Illinois and although that sting still partially remains, there is nothing you can do about it but take care of the business ahead of you. A very good and much better Notre Dame team does that Saturday as it moves to 5-1 at the season's midway point.

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Nick Shepkowski
NICK SHEPKOWSKI

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